David Webber

As a Teaching Fellow at the University of Warwick, I have demonstrated a commitment to learning through a proven track record of high quality teaching to students across an array of different modules within the social sciences. Whilst based at the Department of Politics and International Studies, I have convened a number of modules within the international political economy (IPE) cluster at both an undergraduate and postgraduate level, whilst also supporting the teaching of courses led by the Economics Department and Warwick Business School.

Located more broadly within my interest in critical IPE and economic sociology, my present research seeks to develop a cultural political economy of football within the English context. Drawing largely (but not exclusively) upon the work of Karl Polanyi, I offer a critical analysis of the ‘great transformation’ that English football has undergone over the past 30 years. While much has been written about the rapid marketisation of the sport in this period of late capitalism, I follow Polanyi in tracing the historical origins of such a shift before exploring what this has meant for different groups of supporters of the English game in cultural as well as political and economic terms. Emphasising the interrelationship between these three dimensions rather than simply football’s financialisation, I intend to restate the political possibilities that Polanyi’s work opens up to those fans seeking to narrate and recast an alternative, more progressive and socially democratic game.